Darker, Darker
by El Cuero
Summary: Leela is suffering from insomnia. Her mind is decaying, and her will is slowly cracking. She fears, but cannot know, that her insomnia is leading to the birth of a darker Leela.
1. Part I

**Darker, Darker**

Part I

* * *

Dark city streets. A smog choked sky. And the lights. Oh, the lights. Glowing, screaming. The neon symbol of an era doomed. Signs that sell love, signs that sell lust. Mankind's most primal desires boomed at him in shining Technicolor.

Sex!

Flesh!

Fast cars!

Not necessarily in that order. In a time when the sin of humanity must be spelled out merely to make it's existence known in a dying world, who was safe? Ax anyone, they'll tell you they're scared. And why wouldn't they be? Earth is a planet where no where is free from man's poisonous influences. Life and death are blurred when sheer nature is swiftly being replaced by technology. As it's mother rots beneath it, New New York is a primordial lake of the damned, screaming their maddened cries, which are quick to fall mute amongst the rest. One writhing insect amongst a million. All the while the lights, uncaring and tempting, glow in the haze of the hot blooded night.

"Oh, the lights." sighed Leela observing her homeworld from her apartment window in a tired, sorry state.

The days had grown worse for her, in the land where she never truly felt belonging. Work was hard and unceasing. Insomnia had begun to set in, bringing with it mood swings and her newfound nihilism. Her regular cynicism had developed into an uncaring, unforgiving phase which she did not recognize herself slip into. Night seemed to last forever in the grip of her insomnia. In fact, her sleep deprivation was eroding her ability to think straight, making the former confident captain a vague shadow of her former self.

Insomnia. Insomnia. Insomnia.

She repeated the word again and again, slipping in and out of consciousness without realizing it or even giving a thought to how the time was passing. Each night became a never-ending quest to sleep, to remove herself from this disturbing state of mind and enter a world where all was black and gone. Or perhaps now, her vision had skewered. She feared she was giving way to her poisoned minds dark wish, and was viewing the world in a way so foul she wished to sleep simply to rid herself of it.

She could no longer tell whether she was thinking this in her sleep or as she lay by her window, awake. In a world she was now a stranger too, how could she possibly tell reality from dream?

A strand of purple hair fell across her unblinking eye. She stared at it, sensing something was not right. Her suspicions were confirmed as the hair liquefied in front of her, spreading out into a pool of rot and snaking towards her as some living liquid. As it grew it puffed out, evolving into a gruesome organism. The skin blackened, and the face was a pincushion of horns. The horrible serpent groaned in a pained way, as though contemplating the agony of it's own existence. She tried to move, but could not. No sound escaped her lips, but for a soft moan. With horror she felt her scalp sting the liquid trickled off and slither to face her, hissing in a manner most grotesque.

"_Delectable_", it whispered without lips, each word spilling froth from what could only be called gills in it's sides, "_A fine specimen. Let us indulge the creature with thy touch_."

Screaming in her mind Leela could only lay there in terror as the creature slid down her throat and explored her innards, finding it's way up her brain stem. Taking over her mind. A physical remainder of her insomnia. Her insomnia, taking her over. Draggin' her down a dark vortex, the light at it's opening growing dimmer, and dimmer.

"No!" shrieked Leela, leaping bolt upright out of bed. She was greeted with silence, save Nibblers quiet snores. A cursory glance out the window proved it was morning. Turning to the television she realized she had left it on all night. A black and white screen informed her that she was watching "_THE OUTER LIMITS_, in which Robert Culp is physically transformed by 'The Architects of Fear!'"

She flicked the TV off and sighed. She could barely find her footing as she stood up out of bed, and twice she nearly walked into the walls. Each night's insomniac hell was taking it's toll on her mentally.

Outside was a world she despised, within her came fear. Fear of what could become of her if she did not cure her illness soon.

The sun shone blood red through the black smog, and the lights below were switched off for another day.


	2. Part II A Prophecy

**Darker, Darker**

Part II

**

* * *

  
**

_Sy'relh9_. A fearful planet. A planet that was ominous no matter how you observed it. A planet where black rock

rose into huge pinnacles, like pointed dark towers. Where a dark mist shrouded the base of the rock towers

completely. The only breathable air contained in a cavern underground. The Sy'lehhk cavern. Haunt of the Nygh, a

devout religious folk known for their occult rituals and fascination with the texts of Bolef. Leela was not familiar

with the writings of Bolef, and could not care less about the Nygh and their madness. But as she strode beneath

the pinnacles of Sy'relh9 with Fry following in her midst, Leela could not help but feel fear tingle at the

back of her neck and creep down her spine. She could not deny that the towering stone pinnacles gave her the

sense of being tiny and insignificant in this untamed world, and by extension, the universe. She was just one of

billions of ants, all crawling between the cracks, no individual seeing the bigger picture. If one even existed. End game? What end game? Insert another coin and keep on playing. The game goes on, man! _The game goes on and on!_

"Oh God," she said aloud, like a woman possessed, "such dark thoughts."

Fry's voice echoed from the mist behind her.

"Leela?"

Fry was carrying on his shoulders a crate of Lief herb and typically, Leela would be more than happy to hear the sound of his voice. But without sleep and without patience, every word he spoke became an annoyance. She did not answer him, hoping that if she were to ignore him, he would desist. He did not.

"Leela?" he called again, voice muffled from within the helmet needed to survive outside in Sy'relh9's poisonous

atmosphere.

"What?" she replied with a forced tone of calm.

"You said something back there, didn't you?"

Controlling her irritation she replied in the same calm tone.

"No, haven't said a word."

Yet still he persisted.

"If you say so."

Leela did not respond. The opening to the cavern was close. A deep chasm, the descent was lit only

by primitive wax candles lining the inner walls. Elaborate carvings along the walls depicted leviathans and colossi rising from the ocean, like the titans of Greek myth. Descending unto the pit was surreal, like a nightmare of falling, with no end in sight. Behind her came the soft thud of Fry's footprints, the only reminder that she was not isolated in this strange world. As the mist around him dissolved into nothingness, Fry tentatively removed his helmet. Leela did the same upon hearing Fry inhale.

"The only air on the planet," Leela grinned broadly, the ability to breathe naturally lifting some of her fear and sour mood, "Suck it up, Fry!"

"Maybe once I've got this weight offa' my shoulders." he muttered, straining under the crates mass.

The deep slope led to a place that was miserable and sick. Homes were crudely built huts of stone, and livestock lay, barely breathing, on their sides. The base of the caverns carried on for a long way, and perhaps five hundred stone huts stood, barely room enough between each to walk through, with not a soul in sight. The altar at the town center was were they had been told to place the crate. They were required to leave as soon as possible thereafter.

"Well," groaned Fry, dropping the crate onto the altar's stone base, "This is kinda' creepy."

Leela nodded in silent agreement. Occasionally she thought she heard a whisper, or saw the flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye, but surely she was mistaken?

"Let's go."

Leela turned to face Fry. His voice was strange, and upon seeing his face she noticed something wrong. A fear in his eyes.

She placed a palm on his cheek.

"It's alright. We're going home."

She turned, only to come face to face with a sneering she-devil. Leela became paralyzed in shock. The old Lady was nude, with deep cuts across her skin and wounds within the flesh of her skull. One eye was milky white like marble. The other left only an empty socket. Her sneer contorted into a grotesque grin and she grabbed Leela by the shoulders, speaking in the voice of a reptile.

"No sleep! No sleep!", she sang,"The girl gets no sleep. Little one eye. Little girl, all alone and afraid. Afraid of the world, afraid to sleep. Afraid of herself."

Leela opened her mouth to speak but no sound came out.

"Little girl, no sleep. The drugs don't work do they, little girl? They do not put little girl to sleep, do they?"

Leela slapped the woman's hand away and rose up.

"Do not call me a little girl."

The woman merely snorted.

"But you _are_ a little girl. Little girl, no sleep. I see things. Inside you. Inside your soul."

Leela slumped back down, hypnotized by the womans voice, absorbing her words and unable to deny them.

"You have something inside you. Inside your soul. Another little girl. But not a silly little girl like you. Nasty girl. Wicked girl. A beast, deep within you, darker, darker. Darker, darker."

Mouth agape in astonishment Leela registered only barely the feeling of being grabbed by Fry, and dragged running. As they ran together the woman's voice grew into a high pitched wail.

"Darker! Darker! Darker! Darker!"

* * *

"Fry, am I different?"

The ship was now light years away from that hideous world and the godforsaken cave. Neon galaxies zoomed past at impossible speeds as the ship shot towards Earth.

"Yes." Fry answered honestly, looking Leela in the eye.

She was taken aback, her earlier irritations replaced with an all-devouring fear.

"Fry, have I hurt you at all?"

A painful lump emerged in Fry's throat as he fought back tears.

"You drift off into this fantasy worlds, you, you get mad for no reason at all. You scare me Leela."

An awful, overwhelming silence engulfed the room. Leela's eye became red with tears, and she placed a hand gently on Fry's chest. Tears trickled down his cheeks and hit the metal floor with echoing clinks. Leela spoke softly.

"I will get better. I will sleep tonight. And when we wake up, everything will be different."

She wrapped her arms around him, and responded by doing the same, resting his head on her shoulder.

"You don't need to be scared anymore."


End file.
